Day: February 5, 2017

Cameroon rose again after years of underachievement to win the African Cup of Nations title on Sunday with a fabulous goal in the 89th minute of the final for a 2-1 come-from-behind victory against mighty Egypt.

As the final whistle got nearer, substitute Vincent Aboubakar controlled the ball just outside the area, clipped it over a defender, and then shot past the goalkeeper to clinch Cameroon’s fifth African title and first since 2002.

On the international stage, I have been a Cameroon supporter since their participation in the Summer Olympics in 1984 – and I saw them play for the first time.

Family loyalty often ties my heartstrings to Italy on the world stage [better odds than the Scots side of the family I admit]; but, if there is a global match played and Cameroon is on the card, that is who I will support.

❝ There’s not a lot that’s funny about President Trump’s January 27 executive order temporarily banning immigrants and refugees from seven majority Muslim countries.

But you have to admit this is a little funny: Trump’s executive order appears to brazenly violate another executive order about how the government should issue executive orders…

❝ Presidential executive orders have ranged in history from piddling (giving the executive branch workforce a half day on Christmas Eve) to monumental (the Emancipation Proclamation). Somewhere nearer the piddling end of the spectrum is Executive Order 11030, signed by President Kennedy in 1962 and titled “Preparation, presentation, filing, and publication of Executive orders and proclamations.”…

❝ Trump’s violation of 11030 goes way beyond improper margins, however. Section 2 begins, “A proposed Executive order or proclamation shall first be submitted … to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget,” which is part of the White House. If the director of the OMB approves the executive order, it goes to the Justice Department and then to the president.

But there’s no sign Trump’s immigration executive order was routed through the OMB at the start, and lots of evidence it wasn’t.

❝ We know the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel received Trump’s executive order, because it sent a memo back to the White House approving it on January 27…

Asked whether it had been receiving draft executive orders from the OMB, a Justice Department spokesperson responded: “We’ll decline and defer to OMB on that question.”

No one at the Office of Management and Budget responded at all to repeated inquiries about whether it was first office to receive Trump’s draft executive orders. The regular White House press office also did not respond…